The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1887-04-01

could keep his face straight long
enough to fight me. Finally, like
Baxter's hog, | went off in a drove by
myself and sat down in the outskirts
of the camp, whar l began prepara-
tions for agin' takin' to theroad. To
keep the scorchin' sun from burnin,
my ankles, / got some strong cloth
and made straps, so / could strap the
legs of the drawers down to my moe
casins. Then l was green from hips
to feet.
"When | got up to pursue my way
| was so tightly cased in from my hips
down that / could hardly bend my
knee 'ints, but presently the drawers
limbered up at that pint. In passin'
along by the wagon trains that lover
took / had to stand all the fun that
people seed fit to poke at me, and it
was not a little. Men whooped and
roared as ! came in sight, and the
wimmin sittin' in the front parts of
the wagons laughed till the tears made
great streaks down their faces through
the alkali dust. When one woman got
sight of me every female critter in the
wagon had got to have q look. 1t
was: For Gods sake, Sally, Jane,
Betsey; look hereP and in a mint the
whole front end of the wagon would
be filled with faces peepin' out at me
through long sunbonnets. Why,
they'd ever hold up the babies to let
them have a look at me.
cat times the uproar would be SIGH
that the people in and about the
wagons half a mile ahead would be
| lnnIirD honIy - unn myhn + " -, n,I
sometimes the captains oftrains would
come chargin' back under whip and
spur to investigate. What made me
look wuss than / otherwise would was
the fact of my roundabout bein' red;
the red aggravated the green and the
green the red. You bet / skipped
along pretty lively past the wagons,
except when l was obliged to stop to
ask for q drink of water er a bite of
grub. AS hove in sight some TELLER
would sing out. Hurrahi here comes
the great crane of the DESERTS and
another: Oh, the legs of him. Some
called me the Green Dragon of the
plains and one old fellow declared
that / was the 'wingless famingo OF
the inland lakes a bird he had been
in search of for years.
every train | overlook had some
new name for me. With one train /
was the Upland Lobster of the Great
Basin and with the next | was
'Whangdoodle.' The lightest dose
/ got was to be asked how / got away
from Barnum. / rather prided my
self on the title of Green Dragon of
the Plains and generally announced
myself as SIGH when | got the chance,
for 1T seemed to Inc there was nothin'
sneakin' about that.
"Well, when / cot acrost the Sierras
to Hangtown, found out that there
was to be a grand ball that night just
in the edge OF the town. Before scat
tering to the various California camps
for which they were bound the people
were going to have afarewell dance to.
gether. In the evenin' / thought I'd
slip down to whar the dance was to
come off and look on awhile. | al
ways a mighty fond of dancin', and
down in old Missouri not many could
beat me at the double-shutfle or the
fancy steps and filings.
When / got to the place found they
had set up a lot of crotches in which
they had laid poles, coverin' the whole
with pine and spruce boughs, maxim a
sort of canopy over a big open hall.
The ground under this great shed had
it WAS like a briekyard. / found two
or three fddlers mounted on pine
boxes, and with them a teller with q
charionet. They were maxim pretty
fair music, and q great crowd was
dancin' away. A happier lot OF PEG
pie / never saw before, and have never
seen since. All the dangers of the
| plains and deserts were left behind,
and before was O land of flowers and
of gold.
"Well, / stood in the edge ofacrowd
of two or three hundred spectators
for awhile as a mere looker-on,
but pretty soon / got excited
like. My old Missouri ambition was
aroused. / forgot all about my draw
ers and sailed into the thick OF the
business with tail, gallus Pike Coun-
ty gal, with sun. bonnet on and hair
hanging down her back almost to the
heels Of her shoes. She was built like
a. racer and carried her head Hike the
lead hess OF q band wagon. can tell
you we made the dust fly! / am D lite1
tie over six loot, and that gals head
came well up over my shoulders So
you can see we were no sloXen Of ~
couple. Besides, the girl was prettier
than q bay steer, 9 .assrt n
II soon saw that though mydraw-
ers might be a little too tight, I had
on about the soundest rig in the whole
place. Hooked Just like I was in some
kind OF masquerade outfit and Isoon'
found that lots Of the people thought
I was made up Tor something, as 4